Continuous deep sedation and the doctrine of double effect
Do physicians not intend to make the patient unconscious until death if they gradually increase the sedatives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21504632 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hitoshi Arima (0000-0002-7826-7915, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Pages | 977-983 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Bioethics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0269-9702 • E-ISSN: 1467-8519 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/bioe.12792 |
| PMID | 32666526 |
| OpenAlex | W3043691402 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
Continuous deep sedation (CDS) has the effect of making the patient unconscious until death, and that it has this effect is clearly an undesirable aspect of CDS. However, some authors have recently maintained that many physicians do not intend this effect when practicing CDS. According to these authors, CDS is differentiated into two types; in what is called “gradual” CDS (or CDS as a result of proportionate palliative sedation), physicians start with low doses of sedatives and increase them only gradually, whereas in “rapid” CDS (or palliative sedation to unconsciousness), physicians rapidly administer a heavy dose that clearly induces unconsciousness from the beginning. The claim is that the physicians intend permanent unconsciousness only if they rapidly administer a heavy dose, but they do not intend it when the unconsciousness is the result of a gradual increase of sedatives. This paper attempts to refute these claims based on a close examination of the protocol of gradual CDS. If my argument is valid, the doctrine of double effect would not be useful in justifying most, if not all, cases of CDS
Anesthesia · Doctrine · Epistemology · Intensive care medicine · Palliative sedation · Principle of double effect · Psychoanalysis · Sedation · Unconscious mind · Unconsciousness · Anesthesia and Sedative Agents · Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life · Law · Medicine · Pain Management and Placebo Effect · Philosophy · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1.33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |